Drains in household and commercial use such as restaurants often become clogged or slow running due to the build-up of organic materials and inorganic salts on the drain pipe's interior surfaces. Accordingly, consumers desire a drain cleaning product which is easy to use and reduces the frequency at which drain clogs must be treated.
Traditional liquid drain cleaners are unsatisfactory because the cleaning agents contained in these cleaners only reach the portion of the drain pipe which is in contact with the water carrying the agent. As a result, vertical and horizontal portions of the pipe will receive unequal amounts of cleaning. Thus the drains must be treated more frequently with these traditional liquid cleaners in order to maintain adequate water flow through the pipe.
Thus, there is a need for a cleaning system which would allow the cleaning agents to contact all the interior surfaces of the pipe line. It is also desirable for the cleaning agents to continue to degrade the soil deposits after the carrier system has dissipated.
Prior art compositions have attempted to provide these features through effervescent or foaming cleaning compositions. Exemplary of such cleaning compositions are those found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,264,146 to Tobiason, 4,664,836 to Taylor, Jr. et al and 4,619,710 to Kuenn et al. The patents to Tobiason and Taylor, Jr. et al. relate to drain and/or sewer cleaning compositions, while the patent to Kuenn et al. relates to a disposer cleaner. However, these cleaning compositions do not simultaneously provide effective delivery of cleaning agents to the interior surface of the drain pipe and cleaning efficacy. In addition, the most preferred embodiment of Taylor, Jr. et al utilizes caustic materials as cleaning agents, which are only effective in alkaline pH. Thus these cleaning compositions may not employ alkali sensitive components.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a cleaning composition that coats the interior surface of a drain to be treated so that drain opening actives may contact the organic restrictions.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of effectively removing soil deposits over the entire interior surface of a drain pipe thereby reducing the number of times a drain will need to be treated.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of cleaning a drain utilizing a cleaning composition which is relatively pH insensitive.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a drain cleaning composition which is economical and easy for the consumer to use.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a drain cleaning composition which can be produced by current manufacturing and filling methods.